Composites structures used in a variety of applications sometimes require repair. For example, airplanes employing a composite fuselage may experience localized need for repair work under service conditions. When the repair area on the airplane is relatively small, the repair may be effected through bonding techniques in which a composite patch is bonded over the repair area of the skin. However, bonding techniques may result in the plies being built up beyond the normal skin thickness, thereby altering the cross sectional profile of the skin. Bonded repairs may also result in other variations that may be difficult to control on a repeatable basis. Moreover, as mentioned above, bonding techniques may not be suitable for repairing larger areas, such as, for example and without limitation, areas in a fuselage skin up to and larger than approximately 3 feet in breadth.
Repairs of a larger area on an airplane fuselage may involve cutting away an entire section of the fuselage, and may require replacing portions of interior stringers and/or frame members along with the outer skin. A large area repair of this type may require extensive engineering analysis in order to precisely determine the area of the fuselage surrounding the repair area that should be cut out. Further engineering may then be needed to design the required repair components. Additionally, the engineering and analysis of the repair may require knowledge of, and access to, a variety of engineering tools, each of which may have a unique user interface, database, visualization capabilities and operating system. Large area repairs of a composite fuselage, therefore, may be time consuming, labor intensive and require the involvement of multiple specialized experts.
Accordingly, there is a need for a method and system for performing large area repairs to composite structures, such as an airplane fuselage, that may be rapidly designed and installed, and which reduce dependence on multiple skilled personnel during design and installation.